Parity drive upgrade. (first time ever:p)

[zwientie]

Heya!

 

Been checking a lot, asking a friend who uses unRAID etcetera. Am not entirely clear yet:

I got a 4TB parity drive. Functioning well.
I bought an 8TB drive to replace the parity drive and move the current 4TB parity drive to a data drive slot.

I am a bit lost on what order is best.

I think:
0: Do a parity check.
1: I should stop the array.

2: Unassign the current parity drive.

...guessing now:

3: start the array (not sure why)

4: Stop it again.

5: Power down.

6: Place the new 8TB drive in place of the current 4TB parity drive

7: pre-clear that one

8: stop the array

9:  It says to unassign the parity drive (which one? the emulated one?)

10: Assign the 8TB as the parity drive
11: and then I am lost

Truly been looking. Should be an easy step, either I did not search well enough or there is no clear guide step by step ? *shrug*

...after 11...and some steps perhaps, follow a guide or just add the old parity drive to the system (stop/power down) etc...and assign it as a data drive...

Please let me know if I am wrong with the first 10 steps and which few steps needs to be done after 10 then ....

I did read Parity Swap ...

 

Thanks very much!

/z

Edited August 3, 2023 by zwientie
grammar

[ConnerVT]

What you needi s a bit up from your link:  Parity Disks

[zwientie]

I'm overthinking it right ? Would explain me not finding guides :).

[zwientie]

I'll add the 8TB, pre-clear it for sanity 😛.

Stop array.

Unassign 4TB parity.

Start array - get an emulated parity.

Stop array.

Assign 8TB as parity.

Let it build the parity on that.

After all is done do the steps to make the old parity drive a data drive. Besides, as the manual says, it will remain a backup parity in the mean while.

Correct ? 😛

[itimpi]

Just now, zwientie said:

Start array - get an emulated parity.

All correct except that at this point there will be no parity (I.e. it is not emulated).

[zwientie]

1 minute ago, itimpi said:

All correct except that at this point there will be no parity (I.e. it is not emulated).

 

You mean, there IS an emulated one but it is not a real parity, just to keep it all running ? I did not know either btw, that unRAID can run without parity drives. (Why not, just did not know ...:).)

Thanks y'all ! 😛 There's I dunno...a lot of data, don't wanna lose it ...obviously :).

 

[itimpi]

1 minute ago, zwientie said:

You mean, there IS an emulated one but it is not a real parity

If you have an emulated drive it will be one of the data drives.

[JonathanM]

8 hours ago, zwientie said:

a lot of data, don't wanna lose it

Unraid or any RAID isn't backup, it's high availability, where a failed drive can be emulated and replaced while your data is still accessible. Backup implies the ability to recover from a corrupted or deleted file, which requires a second copy somewhere besides the array. You need to have a second copy away from the array of any data you can't afford to lose.

[zwientie]

Thanks guys!